Denver Botanic Gardens' School of Botanical Art and Illustration is designed to teach the skills necessary to portray plants accurately both for scientific purposes and for beautiful plant illustrations. The school is open for everybody, both for committed illustrator and enthusiastic amateur. The program can lead to a Certificate that is offered only a few locations worldwide. The Certificate Program was initiated and established in 1990 by Angela Overy.

It takes a gifted artist to become a great teacher and those who dare to teach never cease to learn.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Both of Earth’s polar regions are changing rapidly and
dramatically in response to global warming. Yet they remain spectacular
landscapes, wrought of rock and ice and water in ways most of us have never
seen. We will review the recent changes in Arctic sea ice, Greenland’s ice
sheet, and coastal Antarctica, using satellite data, and go closer, using
pictures from field expeditions to get a more personal sense of these far-off,
yet hugely important, regions.

Dr. Ted Scambosis the
Lead Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), and a frequent
traveller to the Antarctic for research. He uses satellite data, and field
instrumentation, to study the polar region’s responses to climate change.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Under the curatorial direction of
Simon Zalkind, and hosted at theArt Gallery in the Fulginiti Pavilionfor Bioethics and Humanities on the
Anschutz Medical Campus,Potions,
Poisons and Panaceaswill
highlight plants that have medicinal properties.

September
8, 2016 – October 28, 2016

Venue: Fulginiti
Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of
Colorado

Reception:Thursday, September 8, 2016, 5:00 - 7:00 pm

You are cordially invited to submit
work to the jurying process for the annual botanical illustration exhibition.
Your dedication to mastering the skills of this art form and illustration makes
us extremely proud, and we would like to showcase your success in a public
venue.

Eligibility:

We welcome artists who have
participated in courses at Denver Botanic Gardens’ School of Botanical Art and
Illustration between June 2014 and July 2016. Artworks of all levels and in any
media taught in the school are welcome.

Subject:

As
the title suggests, illustrations will feature plants that demonstrate—or
allegedly demonstrate—healing, curative, or therapeutic qualities. This may
include plants traditionally referenced in plant-based pharmacopeias—feverfew,
valerian, poppy, goldenseal, St. John’s Wort, ginger or marijuana, for example—or
they may be more recent additions to our knowledge of plant based
medicine. The history of botanical
illustration, medicine and ethnobotany are historically intertwined—a genre
that while it existed in ancient times began in earnest in the 15th
century.

Because of the Fulginiti’s particular interest is in bioethical issues
we also encourage artists to pay particular attention to those plants that
exhibit psychotropic or “mind-altering” capacities. While the “drug war” of the
late 1960s and 1970s effectively halted any exploration of these plants in clinical settings or trials, the research and use of them in clinical
studies and treatment protocols has recently been revived . In addition, religious groups such as The
Native American Church have been given legal authority to use peyote and
psilocybin mushrooms as a “sacramental” substance in their religious and
healing ceremonies. Among the shamanistic cultures of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and
the Amazonian basin the use of plant based psychedelics—ayahusca being the most
prominent—are a central component of the shamanistic plant-healers arsenal.
Their study in clinical settings has been given renewed impetus and “ayahusca
tourism” to those centers of plant-based shamanism has become a thriving
business. Along with laboratory created psychedelics—now more popularly referred to
as “entheogens”—such as LSD and MDMA, this class of plant based brews is
purportedly proven extremely useful in chronic psychological (PTSD, major
depressive disorder, addiction, etc. ) disorders as well physical “cures” and
spiritual transformation—a function especially relevant to end of life issues.
We welcome all submissions whether traditionally based, contemporary, or
“experimental” and we are eager to see medicinal and curative plants that have
been known for centuries as well as more recent discoveries.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

The hugely successful 2013 Chronicles-project was loosely based on Sketchtravel. The travelling
sketchbook for 2013 SBAI students and instructors was a 160-page spring
back hand-bound book with 11”x7.5” pages (Arches 90lb HP watercolor paper). A leather
box was protecting the book on its travel. The book circulated 365 days and
then got printed with help of a kickstarter project in 2015 (also make sure to watch the recently added video).
We printed 500 numbered copies and also financed our
Artist-in-Residency program through it.

Now another book has started its journey and is
expected to be finished and filled with inspirational pages completed by our
community after 365 days of travel. The book is similar than the previous one and the rules are the same
as before: each artist has seven days to compose a page. All 2016 students, potential
graduates and instructors are encouraged to participate.

The first page was just completed by Dr. SarahSimblet, our current guest instructor from U.K.

It was truly inspirational to see the young excitement around the microscopes and drawing pads.

Gracie, 5 yr, was doing very careful notes when she examined the different leaves with hairs in the microscope - already at the young age she knows that all observations should be documented.You can see more images from our event by clicking here.